Brutal ‘Honor Killing’ Described in Canadian Trial for Muslim Father Accused of Murdering Three Daughters & Wife

A Canadian jury heard chilling details from prosecutors who accuse Afghan immigrant Mohammad Shafia of killing his three daughters and his first wife, whom he considered to be dishonoring the family. Prosecutors say his son and his second wife helped him commit and then cover up the crime.

On June 30, 2009, the bodies of 19-year-old Zainab Shafia, 17-year-old Sahar Shafia, 13-year-old Geeti Shafia and 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad were found inside a Nissan submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario. They were on their way home from a family trip to Niagara Falls.

CTV reports on the opening day of the trial:

Crown prosecutors began framing the deaths of three teenage girls and their father’s first wife as an “honour killing” in an Ontario courtroom on Thursday, more than two years after the victims were found submerged in the Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ont.

It‘s expected that the honour killing narrative will be key to the prosecution’s case against the accused family members: Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, husband Mohammad Shafia, 58, and son, Hamed Mohammad Shafia.

All three face four counts each of first-degree murder, and all three have pleaded not guilty to those charges.